New Ideas on Mountain Building

Geologists from Queen’s University in Canada have released a new study that claims mountain building happens at a faster pace and at cooler temperatures than previously thought. Using state-of-the-art techniques to measure the age of rocks, the researchers deciphered a pattern of ages within single crystals from rock remnants that survived continental collision. Their measurements show a 13-million-year cycle in which rocks are buried to 60 km depth, then returned to the surface. This occurred 425 million years ago during a large-scale mountain-building event called the Caledonian Orogeny.